The famous French choreographer will announce on 4 February his intention to leave his post as director of the ballet of the institution which he headed since 1 November 2014

No one is a prophet in his own country. The proverb could still check. A persistent rumor gives Benjamin Millepied on the departure from the post of ballet director, although he created a new piece Night ends tomorrow evening and presents its new season next Wednesday.

The establishment was recently added, because his name boosted sales. And because Benjamin Millepied like to create for the dancers of the company and provides plenty of do it next season.It could also remain as resident choreographer after the break, while defending the idea of ​​bringing major dance companies in the twenty-first century. His departure would weaken the turbulent reign of Stéphane Lissner. For the French dancer and choreographer of the New York City Ballet star and husband of actress Natalie Portman, has given to the opera glamor, talent and patrons. Never gala has reported as much as that given for the opening of Ballet in September. Neither has any dance director has managed to allocate this money to ballet. As for the number of creations in the program, we went from two to ten per year.

At 38, the prestigious choreographer is ready to all revolutions. Demanding, it builds on the young rather than the title star, and always looks more ballet he has not made a habit of flattering.This procedure quite steep, this desire to shake a house he does not know the arcana may suggest, relatively speaking, to the era of Nureyev cabals and strikes. But Nureyev was born in highest place - Jack Lang himself had gone to seek it - and did not intend to leave.Millepied, whose wife made a career in Holywood, may be weary to face the discontent of dancers. He lives at 1 000 km / h. It's not the speed of the cruise liner opera. Lissner he weighed to convince him to stay? Will it be possible to find a flamboyant alter ego? Press Conference Thursday, February 4 to 15 hours.

Benjamin Millepied, the director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet, confirmed in a telephone interview on Thursday that he would leave his position at the end of the current season, in July. Mr. Millepied said that he had decided to focus on his own choreography and to return to Los Angeles, where he still directs the Los Angeles Dance Project, a small contemporary dance ensemble that he founded in 2012, and where he and his wife, the actress Natalie Portman, were based before moving to Paris with their son in 2014.

Rumors of Mr. Millepied’s departure surfaced on Wednesday in a report in the French newsmagazine Paris Match, causing much speculation in the French dance world. The French-born Mr. Millepied, a former principal at New York City Ballet, has directed the Paris Opera Ballet since November 2014, and his announcement just over a year later is a blow to the Opera’s much-vaunted era of new collaboration between opera, ballet and other artistic ventures.

Stéphane Lissner, the director of the Paris Opera who hired Mr. Millepied in January 2013, was not available for comment, but he will hold a news conference on Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman from the Paris Opera press department said. A source, who did not wish to be identified, said that Mr. Lissner would announce a replacement for Mr. Millepied.

Mr. Millepied, an established choreographer who has created pieces for the Paris Opera since his arrival as director, said that he was leaving to focus on his own work. “I want to regain my freedom and I want to create,” he said. “I’ve been honored to be given the opportunity to work at the Opera and with the dancers, but this job, as it exists today, is not something I want.”

I post my reply to Dazza here, because it's too long for the main site.

@Dazza

In this Operagate, we only have the Benjamin point of view. And the majpority of the french press take his side. That he was too modern, for this too old company and his military hierarchy, who don’t want any kind of change, Sorry if it’s outrageous to you I heard a totally different kind of story. And sorry to don’t have a forum to prove it.

He had the full support of everyone. The only thing the company reproch to him was bitching in the press, (http://www.lefigaro.fr/theatre/2015/12/ ... -bulle.php) no one tell him anything for that. They shut their mouth. And weeks later, he do that again in a documentary all about is glory (La Relève).

After that, he loose the confidence of the dancers of the company. http://next.liberation.fr/culture-next/ ... te_1431114A dancer say to Lissner a director of the Opera : “At the end of a show, Millepied tells us we’re great and then he spits on us in the press … we expect the opposite. We are ready to hear criticism , but in front of the press he must defend his company”

Josua Hoffalt (A dancer of the POB) say : “He has not kept his promises

Moreover, he announced so much in the press before taking office: his desire to promote in-house talent to develop projects outside … But it is clear that a year later, the results are not there.

Personally, I conducted two projects outside the Opera, including a show that just plays with dancers of our institution. I have asked Benjamin Millepied, but he never came. And I’m not alone in this case. He said there is no “House” choreographer, but Samuel Murez, who is also a dancer at the Opera, made choreographies for 10 years successfully and he is never moved to see his work. Same thing when I launched a clothing line in the same shop of the Opera, with a dancer from the house.

I am elected to the administrative council of the Opera of Paris, I was able to see him talk about all the great choreographers of the twentieth century by citing only the Americans, without referring to Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart. It is a violation of our history.

It is clear that over time, the disagreement was growing and there was a gap between promises and reality. Projects he had. For him only.

He leaves us in an even greater crisis

Beyond his incompatibility with the teams , there was a problem to me skills and management. We felt he had no desire to manage us , that was also part of his duties.

Today, his statement makes me chuckle . He would have assumed his responsibility, ” with the sole objective innovation in the institution’s radiation service and the development of the dancers ?” For me , this is the record that I will keep this year passed under his direction : a lack of generosity , a certain absence for us and , conversely , a strong presence in the media, few content and projects for company.

In the end, he leaves the Paris Opera in a greater crisis than the one we have known from Brigitte Lefèvre, its former director.”

We can hear a different song. Far from the idealistic image of the brillant artist misunderstand by the world. Here some quote :"A few days before the general of his new choreography , the dancer was far, far away, in California instead of attending the last rehearsals . "At Garnier , we used to say long ago :" If you want to talk to Benjamin , leave a message on his Facebook! "Reveals an employee places . Addicted to Instagram, Facebook , Twitter , choreographer showed more enthusiasm to shoot small films to feed the " third stage" the digital Paris Opera than manage a ballet , managing however to draw stars and young dancers against each other ."

Brigitte Lefèvre the former director, and Aurélie Dupont, his successor, have made good interview where they give true respect to Mr Millepied, and the company. That’s real class. It was a miscast. A mediatic coup by Lissner. But don’t give me that trope he don’t have any support. He was greating like King David. The hierarchy follow his lead, no one made any kind of obstruction. It’s a pure mediatic lie. The only problem was Millepied egotic personnality. He had poor managerial skills. And blame the Opera for that.

Everyone were enthousiastic by the choice of Millepied, i was too. He benefit an opporutnity and liberty, he will never have anywhere in the ballet world. Now he leave the boat like a miserable rat. With all his negative comments who damage the company.

I don't know if he was given support or if promises were made and broken by him or by the opera. What we do know is he had a vision for the opera that wasn't working for him and wasn't working for the opera (although, apparently the work created was fantastic, but there's more to it than that). He tried to pressure them by making some of his thoughts public, but clearly that didn't have the desired effect. Now he is leaving, which seems the best decision for everyone involved. He's obviously a talented guy and can now express himself the way he wants and the opera can find replace him with someone who won't rock the boat so much.

Seems like a good outcome for everyone, considering it was an experiment that didn't succeed.

"Laura Cappelle, a Paris-based journalist who covers the Paris Opera Ballet for the Financial Times, Dance Magazine and other publications. She has spent a decade watching the company, and says that the perception in some reports that the Paris Opera is old-fashioned and resistant to change is wrong.

When Millepied came in, “the company was quite happy with the idea of change. They wanted change,” she said. “But the way he brought it was not the right one.”

“He’d been criticizing the company publicly since he came in,” said Cappelle, “and he did it in middle of the run of ‘La Bayadere.’ The dancers were very upset by that.” Referring to the ballerinas in the technically challenging “vision” scene from “La Bayadere,” he told Le Figaro in December: “Being a dancer is to express, not to look like a wallpaper pattern!”

Haha, that's a great line. I'm sorry but I haven't seen or heard anything that makes it seem like he's done anything wrong. His plan was to shake things up and comments like the wallpaper thing is his way to push dancers out of their pampered comfort zone.

He seemed to be succeeding, as even in his first season, critics began to note a new zest and fluency. Yet Millepied, who was born in France but spent his adult career dancing and choreographing in America – was trying to deliver these changes with a bluntness that many in Paris found hostile. He pulled no punches when he spoke in public about his mission to “bring a breath of air to ballet”. During a television documentary broadcast just before Christmas, he said that the company was in a rut, too attached to its strict hierarchical structure and far from being as “excellent” as it believed. It was sometimes as boring to watch as “wallpaper”.

If you think an organization like that wasn't at least somewhat resistant to tearing up the playbook and starting from a different place, well let's say that I think it's unlikely.

Again, there's no right or wrong. It's incredibly subjective. Benjamin's desire for more raw art isn't objectively better than something that is more graceful and stately. But it was his vision and it just didn't work out.

Could he have kept his opinions internal and been more of a diplomat? Sure, but that doesn't seem to be his nature. Clearly he believes strongly in his vision and like most great people, isn't afraid to tell it like it is. I just saw Steve Jobs the other night and he was a million times more blunt.

During a television documentary broadcast just before Christmas, he said that the company was in a rut, too attached to its strict hierarchical structure and far from being as “excellent” as it believed. It was sometimes as boring to watch as “wallpaper”.

What a brillant way to promote your company and managing it. Steve Jobs was notoriously rude with his team. But do you saw Steve Jobs bitching about his company and his team in public ? Steve jobs was devoted to his company. Millepied was devoted ... to himself. He damage the image of the POB and the company, to portrait himself as a visionnary who face an old fashionned House, who don't want to change. "Rolling Eyes" (The plot is so caricatural we can make a drama ballerina movie)

An old fashionned house ? The POB give him the job, just for being Portman spouse, is an old fashionned house will do that ? he wasn't choose for his experiences. But for his mediatic presence. And he do what he know do the best. Occupying the mediatic street. If it wasn't this old bureaucracy who kill his creativity. Lol. Of course, a 100 000 000€/year budget company financed at 90% by the french people taxes should not have a brureaucray. Why do we need to control the public money ? Democracy is so old fashionned. We're artist. We don't need a bureaucracy.

Let's manage this 335 years old company, with 150 dancers trained in a dedicated school during 10 years, like the LA Dance Project. A 9 dancers crew created around a veggie burger the last summer, just to give a job to Mr Portman, when he follow his wife to LA. No hierarchy. No administration. No rules. No futur. Punk is not dead. Grow Up man. There is no artist who is an artist 100% in his life.

In your point of view there nothing wrong to say the dancers are like wallpaper. Or are boring. Good for you. But for myself, still able to empathize with people. I can easely imagine how it can be rude and gross to read that. Imagine your girlfriend saying everywhere, your'e like wallpaper. You're boring. And in front of you. "You're great !", that's exactly what the company feel like. Or imagine a director who direct Natalie in a movie and say to her. "You're great, you're perfect" And then in newspaper, in media. Natalie Portman ? She was awful, like walpapaer, boring.

Now did you still think there nothing wrong to act like that ? Or being a Natalie relative imune Benjamin to bad attitude and critics ? Yes they were upset. And they were absolutely the right to be. That was gross. They're right to push Millepied out. The problem was not the company. It was Millepied. Why his predecessor (Brigitte Lefèvre) was able to work 20 years in this company and Benjamin can't work more than 20 months ? Because he was too avant-garde ? He shake this old house too much ? Oh come on, don't you have more buffon cliché ?

Millepied is a choregraph. He's too egomaniac for being more. The End.

Steve Jobs was devoted to his vision and when that vision didn't align with that of the company, he told the company to get screwed...well they told him to get screwed.

The reason most corporate people don't often (it happens though) publicly criticize their companies is because their stock price would likely drop as a result. They are forced to put on a smile at all times. But I don't see this is a good thing. I think we'd be in a better place if people spoke their minds more often. This is also why I love it when Natalie actually engages with questions and goes with her gut, instead of conjuring up generic empty responses designed to not offend anyone.

The opera isn't a company in that sense. In fact it could be argued that drama adds to the appeal. I'm sure that's part of why his work was so compelling, because people knew there was a contrasting tension going on behind the scenes and on the stage.

And I'd like to think a professional dancer, in one of the toughest professions around, has slightly thicker skin than to fall apart when their director compares them to wallpaper. If not, they wouldn't even last 5 minutes on So You Think You Can Dance.

Good lord!! Guy signed on as the "director" of some stuffy-assed medieval ballet company governed by some haute tax payer dollars. I probably wouldn't want to associate with the god awful bee hive hairdo Amadeus fuckers either. Fuck it. Move to L.A. Create more art. *shrugs*